able ready to be
opened, and the real fun of the party was commencing when the five
arrived.

They were greeted with subdued enthusiasm, for no one dared to speak
above a whisper, and Connie demanded to know why Billie was late.

"We couldn't do a thing without you," she said. "You had the program and
everything----"

"And besides," finished Nellie, "we'd promised not to start anything
until you came."

"We thought you'd been caught," Connie added reproachfully.

"We were just about to put out the lights and get into bed ourselves,"
chimed in another girl, "because we thought if you were caught, Miss Ada
would come over here and catch us too."

"But what made you late?" asked Connie again.

"If you'll stop talking and listen a minute," said Billie, her eyes
shining with excitement, "I'll tell you what a narrow escape we had."

The girls gathered around eagerly while she told her story, and when she
had finished they gazed at her with horrified eyes.

"Billie, what ever made you do such a thing?" cried Nellie. "Why, if you
had just kept still she probably would never have suspected a thing."

"I know that now," said Billie ruefully. "It was a crazy thing to do,
but when I'd once started it I didn't dare stop."

"Well, I think you deserve a gold medal," said Laura loyally. "If it had
been me----" this wasn't correct English, but Laura was too excited to
notice it--"I'd have giggled or something and given the whole thing
away."

"Goodness! wouldn't Miss Ada be happy if she could really catch us at
something," said Nellie, but the girls would not listen to her.

There wasn't a bit of danger. Weren't they going to have somebody at the
door to mount guard and to warn them of the slightest noise downstairs?

They had decided to draw lots to see who should be chosen for this very
disagreeable position of guard and now they set to work at once to "get
the agony over with" as Rose Belser said.

Rose had been very quiet, for her, and there was a queer expression in
her eyes when she looked at Billie that would have made the latter
wonder if she had had time to notice it. However, there was one girl who
did notice it, and that was Caroline Brant.

Strangely enough, it was Rose who drew the blank that made her "guardian
of the portal" for the first twenty minutes. At the end of that time the
girls would draw again and let another poor unfortunate take her place.

Rose was inclined to grumble at her hard luck at f